American Beauty
A visit to New York City and Washington DC sheds light onto America's triumphs and tragedies.
My trip to America began in New York City. The Statue of Liberty, standing tall with her torch in hand, is considered a symbol of both New York City and the entire United States. Presented as a gift to the American people by France in
1886, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes human freedom. I found it by far the most impressive destination on my New York tour.
As my tour boat neared Liberty Island, I gazed at the statue in awe. I can still visualize the solemn elegance of her profile. It is said that the sculptor, Frederic A. Bartholdi, modeled Lady Liberty after his mother. Instead of climbing up to the torch in the Statue of Liberty's hand, I lolled about on the serene green lawns beneath the monument, listening to strangers' voices and watching birds fly past.
There are many other interesting destinations in New York. Home to both the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street, with its undaunted bronze bull - the symbol of financial power, New York is at the epicenter of the financial world. I visited the United Nations' headquarters and Ground Zero, which stands where the World Trade Center once did, still in an ongoing process of reconstruction. From 5th Avenue to the bright commercial lights of Times Square, New York is chockfull of sights.
When I reached Washington DC, I headed for the National Mall and Memorial Parks, sites that gave me a window into American history in all its glory and tragedy. By chance I arrived on the 44th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, which was delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th, 1963. The overriding feeling throughout the National Mall was sober and, at the Lincoln Memorial, it even felt spiritual. As visitors showed their respect to the 16th American President, Abraham Lincoln, I found a great vista among the giant marble pillars of the memorial, overlooking Washington Memorial and the Reflecting Pool. I recalled this spot was in a scene in the well-known movie "Forrest Gump", which I watched long time ago. The two main characters crossed the Reflecting Pool to reach each other.
Three monuments in the National Mall involve painful memories of war: the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the World War II Memorial. As a Vietnamese, I was drawn to the monument that relates to Vietnam. But it seemed that all the tourists, whether Vietnamese or not, were moved as they stood before the war memorials. The design of the Korean War Memorial is quite impressive. It depicts life-size American soldiers lying exhausted in the battlefield, beside a granite wall etched with portraits of American soldiers who fought in the war. On the wall is carved the short phrase: Freedom is not free. I saw a wreath and a group of Koreans standing silently and recalling, perhaps, their national history.
Most of the four million annual visitors to the National Mall pass by the Memorial Wall, the best-known portion of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. Under the blue sky, this black granite wall is strikingly different from the other magnificent white monuments. The V-shaped wall is carved with 58,256 names of American soldiers who either died, or were classified as missing in action or prisoners of war. Looking at these engraved names, I felt dumbstruck with emotion. I saw aging veterans standing motionless before their companions' names, a mother explaining the wall to her little son, some tourists reading a letter left at the foot of the monument, a single rose left to honor the dead.
I recalled an article by journalist Hieu Minh about his brother, a soldier who died in a battle in southern Vietnam in 1969. "[My brother] wrote just one line: My troupe was attacked yesterday, but I'm still alive. I was touched to recall this phrase, 'I'm still alive," wrote Minh. Perhaps the tens of thousands of American soldiers whose names were carved on the wall had once written such short, meaning ful phrases in letters home to their families.
